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This week's pick will likely sell out pretty quickly......as it's a hyped up Image title. Just sayin'

Bedlam #1

story NICK SPENCERart RILEY ROSSMOcover FRAZER IRVINGOCTOBER 3148 PAGES / FC / M$3.50Fillmore Press was once Madder Red, a homicidal maniac and criminal overlord who terrorized the town of Bedlam for years. Then he got better. This is what happens next.A double-sized introduction to a blood-soaked cityscape of murder, mayhem, and mystery by NICK SPENCER (MORNING GLORIES, THIEF OF THIEVES) and RILEY ROSSMO (REBEL BLOOD, GREEN WAKE)!

If you can't make it to your local comic shop, a digital copy can be found here.Ze rules:

Review as often or as little as you like. Once you've posted 5 reviews, you will be awarded 1 pick. You can post 5 reviews, right? That's a totally achievable goal and with day and date digital releases becoming the standard, it shouldn't matter if your shop ordered enough copies of this weeks comic or not.

When multiple Review Groupers have posted 5 (or more) qualifying reviews, they will be awarded their pick in the order that they qualified. What constitutes a qualifying review? Any review posted (with a score on a scale from 0-10, that's right 0!) within 1 calendar month of the thread going live. Reviews are to be at least 5 sentences long. It shows that a) you have at least read this week's pick and b) you have some unique insight into the comic.

Reviews posted while waiting in line for your pick will be applied to your next pick.

I'll be keeping track of everyone's progress with the newly christened Spreadsheet of Fantastic (RIP, Spreadsheet of Doom) and reporting the results in the Current Members list in the weekly OP. When it's your turn to make a pick, I will PM you. If you do not respond to me by Midnight EST the following Sunday, you will lose your pick and I will start a poll to determine that week's selection.

Any week in which we do not have a Review Grouper with 5 qualifying picks, we will determine the week's comic via poll.

If it's your week to pick, remember to keep it under $3.99.

Naturally, this new system is new and it may be necessary to make changes as we go.

Since no one else has 5 reviews under their belt, a poll will be put up to determine next week's pick. Next week's releases are listed here. It'll be up by week's end and ideas for what should be included into the poll will be considered.

Read it and I'm just going to type down my thoughts as they come to me.

Ahem.

From my perspective, there are two versions of Nick Spencer that show up to write a comic. There's the craftsman who turns in works like Iron Man 2.0 and there's the guy who churns out material like Secret Avengers. Essh. Thankfully, the former showed up to pen a disturbing first issue for Bedlam. The main character (Madder Red) is a fucked up villain that demands the reader's attention. Of course, Spencer is thankfully aided by a strong artist like Riley Rossmo. He does a great job of making Madder Red and his actions look creepy. I honestly don't know how this series will turn out, quality wise. Still, Bedlam #1 is a nice start. It's worth a look.

story DAVID HINEart DOUG BRAITHWAITE & ULISES ARREOLAcover DOUG BRAITHWAITENOVEMBER 732 PAGES / FC / M$3.50DAVID HINE and DOUG BRAITHWAITE are re-united for Season One of this science-fiction crime thriller. A uniquely skilled team arrives on a frontier planet to investigate a series of bizarre and violent deaths. Forced to rely on primitive technology, they soon learn what it means to be aliens in a hostile environment. If they are to unravel the mysteries of Amaranth they will also have to learn what it is to be human.

Yes, I was struck by the parallels of the red-haired Joker-esque serial murderer killing a theater full of people for what seems like no real motive. In the comic, though, there is obviously more to his madness than flunking out of school and buying a bunch of expensive weapons on the internet with your grant money, although he is clearly mentally ill. I wondered if that's how that dude in Colorado imagined himself to be at all, some sort of quirky criminal genius?